MTN Nigeria said it has made a slight readjustment to its business model by focusing less on investment in voice facilities and more on data facilities. The redirection in the MTN’s capital expenditure (CAPEX) which began earlier this year, followed the company’s observation that many Nigerians are now more into data communication than voice communication.

According to MTN’s General Manager for Corporate Treasury Finances, Mr Ishael Nwokocha, who recently made this disclosure in Lagos, much of the N180 billion earmarked for the company’s CAPEX in 2018 was geared towards network expansion/upgrade and optimisation for data. This, he said, is part of the company’s effort to meet their subscribers’ increasing demand for data.

“In 2016 we spent N192 billion on CAPEX, in 2017 we spent N225 billion on CAPEX and in 2018, we earmarked N180 billion on CAPEX, and a large chunk of the 2018 budget was directed to network expansion, upgrade and optimisation to meet the growing demand of our subscribers for data services.” -Nwokocha

He went further to state that it became imperative for the company to invest more in data facilities and increase its data offering, seeing as much of its revenue will henceforth be derived from customers who are interested in using data services for the internet and social media

Note that MTN has a legacy of investing more in voice facilities in order to provide the absolute best voice facilities. However, it now has to follow a global trend whereby more network subscribers are interested in the use of data.

MTN Telecommunications Nigeria Limited, which is one of the leading telcos in the country, recently signed an N200 billion loan deal with 12 Nigerian banks as part of its efforts to improve its services and expand into underserved areas in the country.

But it has yet to pay up the N330 billion fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), neither has it carried out its highly anticipated listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) which could enable it to easily raise capital.